Malawi's former president Bakili Muluzi has endorsed veteran opposition leader John Tembo, who is president of the main opposition Malawi Congress Party (MCP), as a joint opposition presidential candidate in the scheduled May 19 general elections.
Muluzi, who was last April endorsed as a presidential candidate for the former ruling United Democratic Front (UDF), had his name rejected as an eligible candidate by the Malawi Electoral Commission on March 20 on the premise that he had already served as president for the maximum of two consecutive five-year terms. Muluzi has since gone to court to challenge the Electoral Commmission's decision. No date has been set for hearing of the case.
But last week Muluzi and Tembo announced that the two opposition parties are discussing an alliance to fight the May polls as a united front. Details of the alliance are still being worked out. Said Muluzi at the Saturday rally: "As you know, we (the UDF) are working together with the MCP; there is therefore need to field one presidential candidate. Since the Electoral Commission said, according to them, I cannot stand I am endorsing the Right Hon. John Tembo as the opposition candidate."
Muluzi was, however, quick to state that this does not mean he was withdrawing the court case challenging his name's rejection as an eligible candidate by the Commission. He also said both the MCP and the UDF will maintain their separate identities and, apart from having a joint presidential candidate, the two parties will sponsor their own parliamentary candiates. "It's time to change; come May 19 (President) Bingu (wa Mutharika) will no longer be president of this country," he said.
Muluzi, who single-handely annointed Mutharika to succeeed him at the end of his constitutional two five-year-terms, fell out with the economist-turned-politician with the latter accusing Muluzi and the UDF leadership of frowning upon his tough anti-corruption stand. Mutharika quit the UDF to found his own Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in February 2005, nine months after winning the May 2004 election on the UDF ticket.
Muluzi announced his come-back bid last year, saying he wanted to wrestle the presidency from"the ungrateful" Mutharika despite questions surrounding his eligibility as a candidate. After the Electoral Commission rejected his name as a candidate UDF strategists said the party was looking at various option, including partnering with another opposition party, apart from persuing contesting Muluzi's rejection in court.
Meanwhile, Tembo had already selected a senior UDF official Brown Mpinganjira as running mate for the May polls.
At the Saturday rally which took place at Njamba Park in Blantyre, Tembo thanked Muluzi for the endorsement and promised to respect Muluzi as a former president.
"Bingu disrespect Dr. Muluzi by arresting him daily," he said. "The MCP government will accord Dr. Muluzi due respect befitting a former president."
Muluzi is currently in court answering several fraud and corruption charges. He is due back in court on May 7 to answer a case in which he is accused of siphoning 1.7 billion Malawi Kwacha (about US $11m) of donor money meant for government projects to his personal accounts.
Mutharika, 75, is credited for instilling fiscal descipline that has seen the economy posting impressive annual growth rates of as high as 9 per cent while Tembo, Malawi's long-serving central bank chief during the one-party MCP regime, is also seen as a desciplinarian in fiscal matters.(rt)
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